Plea bargain near in murder

Bill Gang

Friday, June 27, 1997 | 11:17 a.m.

A plea bargain may be near for the woman charged with murder in the death of a teenage bicyclist, the inadvertent victim of the woman's pursuit of two men she thought had robbed her two weeks before.

Tracy Galindo, 34, will return July 7 to District Court to determine if the case can be resolved before her Aug. 4 trial on the charges that could put her in prison for two life prison terms plus 40 years.

The May 21 incident began at a convenience store when Galindo confronted two men she believed were the same two who had stolen money from her.

When they left, according to a grand jury indictment, Galindo followed them along Washington Avenue near Pecos Road and her truck hit their truck, forcing it onto a sidewalk where it hit two bicyclists and knocked down two light poles.

Sixteen-year-old Keith Batts was killed when the truck driven by Jose Ruiz-Medina, 28, struck him and another teenager, Booker Morris.

As Morris was taken to University Medical Center for treatment, Galindo was being given a field sobriety test, which she failed, the indictment charged.

Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker said her blood-alcohol level was 0.18 percent after the incident, nearly twice what is legally considered to be under the influence.

In addition to a charge of second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, Galindo is facing two felony drunken driving counts plus two counts of battery with a deadly weapon.

The incident, ironically, occurred less than two weeks after Galindo's May 8 arrest on a misdemeanor DUI charge in the city of Las Vegas. That charge is still pending in Municipal Court.

Although Galindo told police that Ruiz-Medina and Ignacio Ruiz, 26, had robbed her, no report of the robbery was on file.

Police said Galindo's loss apparently involved the theft of some money from a video poker machine she was playing and it is unlikely from the investigation that the two men in the truck were involved.

Galindo is in the Clark County Detention Center, unable to post the $186,000 bail set by District Judge Donald Mosley.